Focus on your strengths and be aware of your weaknesses.
“You are not your weaknesses!”-Marla J. Albertie,
Do you know what your strengths are?
How many do you have?
Do you spend any time working on them?
Many people, especially women, do not focus on their strengths. We tend to focus on our weaknesses the majority of the time. For example, if you work a 9-to-5 you may have something called an end-of-the-year review (some companies also have mid-year reviews). Personally, I am not a big fan of them. During these reviews your manager should tell you things that you are doing great. They should also tell you your areas for improvement.
Many times when we have these reviews, we hear feedback about our areas for improvement which in our brains outweigh our strengths. Is this correct for you? I have done this many times. All of a sudden, I forget about the areas that I’m doing well in and start to focus on the 1-2 areas of improvement. I would spend a lot of time and energy trying to “fix” what is wrong while not using my strengths to their full capacity.
Now, you may say: “Well, Marla, we can work on both.” Yes, this is correct; however, the brain cannot multitask, it is a known fact. You can only work on either a strength or a weakness at one time. A lot of times we tend to work more on the weaknesses than on the strengths.
I am here to say: “Screw your weaknesses.”
Yep, I said it!
Listen, weaknesses exist, and you should be aware of them. Vulnerable moment here… one of my weaknesses is typing (crazy, huh, for a blogger and author). I am not the fastest typist. I let it bother me for many years, but now I don’t care anymore.
I believe I have great content that can help women. My strength is believing I have the ability to help women discover harmony. My weakness is being a slow typist. Guess which one I am going to focus on? You get the picture.
Take out a journal and answer these questions:
What do you have the ability to do to help others?
What are your strengths?
Are you working on them?
Are you building on them?
Stop spending time trying to improve yourself in an area that you neither want to improve nor care about.
Be aware of your weaknesses and work on them as needed. I can guarantee you that if you focus on your strengths you will be successful. To help you find what your strengths are take the Strength Finders 2.0 test and read the book. There is a fee, but trust me you are worth it. It is a life changer.
Let me know your strengths…
Keep winning and creating harmony in your life.
Marla J. Albertie
Your Life Harmonizing Strategist
Marla, you couldn’t have stated it better. Focus on what is working. This made me think about how there was a time in my life when I was frantically trying to manage every detail of the business. It was frustrating, draining, and unending. The light bulb finally came on. I realized it was most important for me to manage the major and hire the help to manage the minor – all those things which need to be taken care of, but are not major items I need to focus on. It made a world of difference. Thanks so much for sharing.
Exactly! You are dead on Dianne. We are unique creatures and we have great strengths, but so often we don’t use them and we focus on improving an area we don’t care about. The great thing is no one has to be an expert in everything, it is okay to know a little about everything and focus on what is important to us. Thank you so much for reading.